Yikes! Category 4 Typhoon headed straight for Fukushima prefecture...

[drokhole]

...and the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant:






Previous predictions/updates had said it would weaken, but it has kept jumping in strength. Hopefully it loses steam soon, and the damage is kept to a minimum (both at the plant, and elsewhere in greater Japan).


Edit to add link to article:

Typhoon Roke Hits Japan on Track for Leaking Nuclear Power Plant

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Roke brought evacuation orders, downpours and fears of floods to southern Japan today as it began to traverse the country on a course towards the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

More than 400,000 people have been advised to evacuate because of Roke, public broadcaster NHK said. That's in line with evacuation numbers for typhoon Talas earlier this month, which dumped record rainfall on southern Japan, causing mudslides and floods that killed 67 people and left 26 missing.

The eye of Roke, which is categorized as "strong" by the Japan Meteorological Agency, was about 1,016 kilometers (631 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 1 p.m. local time today and packing wind speeds of 40 meters per second. The typhoon is forecast to take three days to pass over Japan and its storm warning area is due to cover most of the country in that time, according to the meteorological agency's website.

Roke, due in Fukushima prefecture in 48 hours, may hinder work to control leakage of water into the basements of the Dai- Ichi reactor buildings, which contained 102 million liters of radioactive water as of Sept. 13, according to Tokyo Electric estimates. Roke may drop 150 millimeters of rain on Fukushima within 24 hours, likely in short, heavy downpours, Kenji Okada of the Japan Meteorological Agency said by phone today.

------

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/20/bloomberg_articlesLRT4QP6KLVRE.DTL#ixzz1YVmMlVX5

[mod mom]

1. unbelievable!

[Bumblebee]

2. this shows it will be a tropical storm by then

still not great but hopefully not Cat 4.

[godai]

3. Rain is the main concern.

There will be a lot of landslides and flooding.

[Auntie Bush]

4. Unfortunately a tropical storm can still do a lot of damage. Look

what happened to NJ and VT and across the country. Maybe the flooding will do the most damage. I sure hope it doesn't make life harder for any of those poor people.

[drokhole]

5. Update: Now Cat 3. Projected to make landfall as Cat 2. 1.3 million people evacuated.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp201118.html

Nasty looking bugger.

One million flee as typhoon nears Japan

Dangerous Typhoon Roke rapidly strengthens, to rake Japan